And all the time he must satisfy his
conscience, and reach his goal by the craft and strength of his
intellect rather than by the arts of popular management. No
statesman ever handled the problems of his public career with a
keener understanding of the conditions of success.
The middle region was too much divided by the game of politics
played by her multitude of minor leaders to unite upon a favorite
son in this campaign; but De Witt Clinton, finding elements of
strength in the prestige which his successful advocacy of the Erie
Canal had brought to him throughout the region where internal
improvements were popular, and relying upon his old connections with
the Federalists, watched events with eager eye, waiting for an
opportunity which never came. Although the south saw in Rufus King's
advocacy of the exclusion of slavery from Missouri a deep design to
win the presidency by an antislavery combination of the northern
states, there was little ground for this belief. In truth, the
middle region was merely the fighting-ground for leaders in the
other sections.
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